The game looked a lot like the season opener in Green Bay, but this time Who Dat Nation was treated to a different result, as the Saints overcame smaller-than-they-probably-should-have-been third and fourth quarter deficits to beat the Houston Texans 40-33 in a game full of bizarre twists and turns.
From the outset, it was clear that the Saints were going to have to score 40 points to win this one. I spent most of the first three quarters anticipating how it would be possible to put into words how horrendous the Saints defense looked without saying things I would regret. The same defense that looked like it was tightening up the seams when it hosted Chicago a week ago allowed 473 yards of total offense and looked like it was more than a step behind Matt Schaub and the rest of the Texans.
But alas, as is often the case with Gregg Williams’ bend-but-don’t-break style defensive scheme, the Saints tightened up when they needed to and put the offense in position to win the game at the end thanks in large part to a couple of great plays by Jabari Greer and some questionable play-calling by the Texans.
Am I saying that it is acceptable for the Saints to play defense at the level which it played Sunday? Absolutely not (and you can bet we will go more in-depth on this when we release our positional grades later in the week). Any football team will lose more often than it will win when it allows 33 points. But for this week, the Saints can at least move toward their preparation for Jacksonville knowing that they can tighten up when it matters most.
The reason for that, of course, is that that the Saints are one of the few teams that can actually win a football game while only stopping the other team twice in the entire game. Drew Brees started a bit slower than in the first two games, but made up for it in the second half by putting on a clinic which included 23 points in the fourth quarter.
Without presumed leading receiver Marques Colston for the second straight week, number 9 picked up where he left off by assaulting a cocky Texans secondary who seemed to decide after the first half that they had figured Brees out. Jimmy Graham once again upped his contribution with 100 yards and a TD on 4 catches, and Lance Moore finally got into the mix with 88 yards and a TD on 9 catches plus two 2-point conversions (on the exact same play twice in a row), embarrassing heavy trash-talkers CB Kareem Jackson and S Danieal Manning en route to completing the fourth quarter comeback.
The Texans regained the lead on a bizarre play that involved four ricochetes followed by a miracle 20-yard TD catch and run by WR Kevin Walter, but Brees directed the game-winning drive (and the drive prior) almost entirely through Lance Moore, who made an emphatic statement that his injury problems are behind him.
One particular that is worth noting was the late-game play of Mark Ingram. Ingram scored his first NFL TD on a truly professional 13-yard run. He didn’t overrun his blockers to the outside, he followed his block through a hole and burst at exactly the right moment to seal the game on the Saints final go-ahead drive. Even more importantly, though, was his huge 3rd and 1 pickup on the first go ahead drive that proved to his teammates and coaches that he can pick up the short yardage when it counts.
Week 3 was an entertaining affair for the Saints, but let’s hope for our own stress levels that the defense will have more games like the one in week 2 than the ones in weeks 1 and 3. We are yet to see the Saints score fewer than 30 points, but it is safe to assume it will happen at some point, so here’s hoping that the defense is ready for that day when it comes. We will be back soon with more in-depth analysis in the form of Positional Grades and Saints and Sinners.
